Nice weekend

Well Saturday I was lazy and didn't do a thing except chill with the woofs, we had a lovely day on the sofa, relaxing and resting. I wasn't feeling great so it seemed like a good excuse to watch movies and hug my woofers!

Sunday we travelled to Catherson Stud which is the home of UpAndover for an agility match with them. Simon and Lorna Peachey judged and put up lovely courses for us.

I ran Hoaxey in Nursery Agility and Jumping and Boo in 6/7. Boo was up first and did a beautuful agility run with fab contacts. He hit the seesaw sooo fast and jammed his breaks on at pivot but just didnt get any grip and kept sliding right off the end poor sausage! Then Hoaxey up for the jumping- Lorna had set a blast that was a big circle round the outside then a change or direction back to an inner circle then a short sprint finish. Little Hoax flew round and I just had to steer gently- it was a quick course and you felt like they were slipping away from you but we held it together for a clear! Whohoo!

Back to Boo for the jumping- he ran ok but with a wide turn and knocked pole- ah well he worked well anyway today. Hoaxey set off fast in the Agility. She didnt even blink at the AFrame which was the first trap after 2. The turn onto the long jump was awkward because they couldnt see the long jump and it was at a rear cross, she started to pull in a little so I had to correct her line- she took this ok. I think at jump 7 I must have begun to move becquse she started to pull off again- I corrected her line but pushed her wide towards the tunnel! Whoops! I wanted her to respond to the F/C so took her over jump 7 again- she exectuted it perfectly this time and flew accross the DW to nose target. Next trap was jump 10 to AFrame- people werent seeing this line and the dogs just needed a call to move their line. Hoax ran this well and DID see the Aframe but responded to the fact I was heading towards the tunnel and her verbal call and shifted her line towards the tunnel. Towards the AFrame I knew I wanted to get ahead of her for the last two jumps because of the angle. As I recalled her I just saw her hit the up of the A- sail over the apex and without touching a foot on the down ramp land right at the bottom holding on with a paw then reversing back to nose target- she tried soooo hard to stop I couldnt be angry LOL!

Overall both dogs worked well. Hoax won the Nursery Jumping which was great, coz not only was she competing against all heights, but the large dogs even jumped medium. She ran it in 17.91 - four seconds ahead of second place! Clever baby girl!

We enjoyed the day very much and came home tired and proud of my woofers

Boo Babies- Yay!

Megan (Harrjak) has now had her pups from her last meeting with Boo! this is a repeat of a fab litter born a few years ago. She has had 2 boys and 4 girls- all tris, one red tri (bitch). They are all well, healthy and are clasically marked. I will update my site soon. In the meantime have a peek at Chels site http://www.harrjak.co.uk/meglitter2.html and here is the first born boy-aaah!

Shattered but happy

Well. What a great weekend. UK Agility was great. Boos Agility was first and I ran NFC. His contacts were lovely and solid and he really worked well. Hoax then ran her jumping, the start was jump- weaves, she hit the weaves fast and didnt wrap her body back for the third pole so we reset her weavs, she did the rest of the course very nicely with some sendons and bounces- what a good girly. Boos jumping was ok although he had a pole. Hoaxey did a really nice agility run and if I hadn't run NFC would have been clear. I was really impressed with a few bits: Her start she ran straight up the line, allowing me to cut accross slightly, I saw lots of dogs pull in early so was really pleased. Then 8/9 to seesaw. A lot of dogs headed for or went onto the AFrame. I was determined to trust Hoaxey here so from the DW I just sent her off to run the two jumps on her own so by the time she came over 9 I was already nearly at the seesaw- she didnt even blink the wrong way! Then we had jump to weaves. I wanted to let her find the entry so decided to wrap her around the far wing of 12 and let her find her own entry- she did this perfectly! The rest of the course was neat and fast- yay!


Sunday saw us training with Toni Dawkins. We had quite a big selection of standards so each excersise took a while to get through. Hoax worked her contacts nicely- well Toni didnt slag them off too much so they must have been ok! LOL Toni gave me some help on timing which was our only real issue. If I cue Hoax properly, then she reponds just fine. Toni said it is fairly typical of medium handlers. Medium dogs seem to pick their line really early so it is up to us to show them where they are going in plenty of time. Toni mentioned that Hoax works simular to her own medium collie 'Minx' so could see where I was going wrong and why. I really enjoyed it and took home lots of tips and things to practise!

I cant wait for the weekend to begin...

Whohoo! It's the weekend!

Hoax and Boo have both had a good agility week. Hoax flew round courses all week gaining more and more confidence. I don't think she is the speed demon some mediums are but hope her neatness will make up for it.

Saturday I am going to Cheltenham for a UK Agility show. Purely to 'train' Hoax and Boo in the ring. Yawn- an early start just for training!

Sunday we are having Toni Dawkins back over to train us- yay! I really like training with Toni and am sure she can give me tons of tips to help with Hoaxey. I missed out on workingwith her last time she came over as Hoax was in season so have kept my little girl wrapped in cotton wool this week in total determination NOT to miss this one.

Oo also I guess I should post a pic of Baby Hanekoms first ever photo shoot. Here is my scan photo (How clear is that)! taken at 12.5 weeks (I am 15 weeks today and wondering when I will fit back into my jeans) boohoo!

Wonderful Weekend

SATURDAY Well, we started the weekend with a mini Crufts practise session with Boo, Storm and Tyke- Sassy sadly couldnt make it but I wanted to practise some courses and contacts. I was generally very pleased with Boo. his waits, contacts and weaves are all good and he is listening well to me. I just am practsing working him steadily ad clear which is all you need for the teams. We followed this with an Agility Lesson from my Mum. We go there once a month and work Una (Heather), Jinx (Sophie Macbeth) and Hoax for an hour. This week we did weave entries with Channels, a mini course with recalled and sendaway contacts with some snakes and turns then some straight line weaves and some rear crosses. I was so pleased with Hoax, she seems to have mostly cracked her weaving, bar the odd hiccup, he sendaways, wing wraps, rear crosses, fans etc all worked just neatly! Her contacts were nice aswell. The biggest issue at the moment is distinction between the seesaw and the dogwalk. I have always had different verbal cues for each but she just isnt realising what she is heading onto. Her DW when she knows what it is is lovely, SS the same. But she flies the seesaw then 2nd time realising what it is a a little shaken she creeps it. DW she creeps then bails off the up as she cant figure out why it isnt tipping! Aarggh! Well lots of DW then SS reps I think!

SUNDAY Good day today, both Hoax and Boo worked so well. Boo had 3 clears from 3 runs which is totally what I wanted- not the fastest ever but then I wasnt puching for speed, just consistency. He still managed a 3rd and a 4th though in the Jumping and Steeplechase. the surface also made Boo slip quite a bit which is extra good practise for Crufts! Hoax was a little star. She balked a few times at the DW in the Agility (SS issues again) so I helped her with that as soon as she realised it didnt tip she ran straight into nose target position. The rest of the course was foot perfect- she worked her turns and sent round the fans so well! Jumping started very well and except messing up in the weaves this time- she worked the rest of the course as a Clear Round! Her straight lines and turns were even fab. I walked out the ring pleased with her but worrying a little about her weaving- I thought we'd cracked that! Final run was the Steeplechase. Don set a flat out straight up M shape course using tunnels and a fan for the turns. I think some people over handled this so I just worked the whole course with a few rear crosses. She flew round clear! We had some nice bounce strides where needed and a few neat turns on her fan. I was so happy with her and she loved it- we both finished the day grinning. I had to leave early as I was shattered but was over the moon to get a text from yvette saying Hoax had won her class!!! Whoohoo! Times were hard to gauge as it is all run on manual timing. Timekeepers changed between classes and sizes so I can't realistically compare Hoax and Boos times as I know manual timerkeepers can be out by a few seconds depending on when/ where they stand/ press the button etc. It just felt great and thats enough!

All in all, both dogs had lovely, secure waits. Good contacts and not one pole or off course Elimination in all six runs x I Love my dogs!

Planning, prep and more training

Well I finally managed to get hold of Dave Ray this week ref. having the same handler throughout for Olympia qualifiers. He confirmed what I suspected in that ONE handler must run the dog from qualifier to semi to Olympia.

Baby Hanekoms due date is the 08.08.08 which means Hoax semis which are at KC Festival on 08.08.08 are OFF for me... boo hoo hoo. So that means Nic gets to run my princess in her first season for Olympia Qs. I must try not to be too harsh on him!!! LOL.

There is no point in him running Boo as he just can't work the way Boo needs to be run. I will just have to hope that at least Large dog semis are on varying dates so hoping bump isn't too big!

Boo is back after his two month break over December and January and is so happy. He spends his lessons woofing and wagging and is flying at the moment. I so enjoy working him, his enthusiasm, and drive at agility make working him a dream!

Hoax is also continuing to improve. I am now happy enough with her seesaw to run her in the ring and she is finally feeling happy straight line weaving. We went onto the V Weaves for her so she could learn to stretch her stride for single pacing. I have not by any means trained her for single strides as I always thought her stride length too short for it, but she has chosen to single pace and it is my job to help her with that. We seem to be mostly there now although she still makes mistakes. I think I will keep having to pop back onto Vs for the next few weeks to keep her stride correct.

Lots of Agility booked for this weekend- Yay! I have a lesson with Mum on Saturday which I share with Heather and Una and Sophie and Jinx. All three dogs started in the same puppy class with Nic so it really is a fantastic group. I love training with Mum. She is so positive, and unlike a lot of trainers is adaptive to yours and your dogs capabilities and comfort zones. Boo I know how to run, I know that he is much tighter and faster with me working in front and turning him into me. Hoax I am just not sure yet. She does some extremly neat wraps away from me and then lovely turns towards!

The I have Corton Ltd on Sunday- I will make sure Boos contacts are bombproof in competition aswell as at Training and work Hoaxeys contacts etc aswell. It's a fab show to start pups off at so we will wait and see how she does!

Hoax, Boo and Agility confidence!

Well the princess (Hoax of course) is twenty two months old now and is just feeling like we may be getting ring ready. I forgot when training a dog that it is really two steps forwards, one step backwards.

I am fairly pleased with her jumping and turns. I was quite careful with Hoax to train both from pretty early. I did lots of straight lines into tunnels etc and seperatly did wing wraps and fans. I have now brought them together and am pretty happy with it all.

Her weaves are coming on now and I think she is going to have a lovely, low, single stride action through them. Contacts are ok- not great but ok. I guess contacts are always a work in progress.

I WISH I was a more confident person. Is it just me who analysys every aspect of my dogs working abilities? Straight lines: "that didn't feel fast enough, why was there an extra stride instead of a bounce". Then I go away and work on bounce jumping which she does fine. Turns: "Was that tight enough, could I make it tighter, was there enough speed out of the turn, if I asked for a tighter line would I loose the speed"... and on it goes!

All the above get thought through daily with Hoax. As they did with Boo when he began. I really have no idea yet if my princess will be competitive or not. One day we will work and feel quick and neat, the next feels like she is holding back with her speed and I worry that she won't be fast. I guess a lot of the worry comes from knowing that people will be watching her when she comes out. When Boo started I had been away from Agility for years, I hadn't really ever trained a dog on my own and no one really knew me.

Boo surpassed ANY expectations I had. I LOVE that dog for his sweetness at home and total biddibility and drive for Agility. I really never expected to do what we did, but here we are, and expectations are so much higher for Hoax. People are so sweet when they say that they can't wait to see her work, but that feels like such a lot of pressure!

Well Hoax and Boo are very different and I suspect their results in the ring will be different aswell. I must remember thats Boo was cr&p his first season and we just trained really. I will try not to put the pressure on myself and Hoax and just have fun out this year!

Wow, what a lot of waffling, I will probably decide to edit this post later on when I read it back and think... "Huh"?!?

Why not join the blogging community...

so everyone seems to be starting blogs now and seeing as I spend so much time pouring over them, stealing agility excersises and generally enjoying them. I thought I may as well join the crowd.

I already have my website but don't like to put tons of text on there- just the odd update is more than enough, so I guess this is a nice way of keeping things updated.

I will probably go on and on mostly about Boo and Hoax as I spend enough time analyzing them myself. The odd natter about Nics dogs Kaos and Linx might appear of you are lucky... oh and possible the odd mention of Baby Hanekom if I get REALLY bored... more of that later!